


Sabotage

by Hanzohara



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, and very bad planning, mocas atrocious sense of humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 04:22:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16569578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hanzohara/pseuds/Hanzohara
Summary: In Moca's defense, band-vs-band rivalry can make people do some very questionable things, and make a bad idea seem like a very good one.





	Sabotage

**Author's Note:**

> y a l l those cards from last night,,,,,, i am deceased and in my grave. dead ass stayed up until 3 am to finish this so i could post today

To say that Sayo, as she trudges in the direction of CiRCLE with the weight of her guitar case firmly to her back, is suspicious would be a grievous understatement. It’s not so much the fact that Moca had put up the idea of them going on a date, seeing as they hadn’t in… who knew how long with midterms having a week or so ago, and Sayo had adamantly refused to leave her studies baring Roselia practice. It was more the location. Not that Sayo didn’t want to spend more time practicing because really, any time practicing was better than not but it’s more than a little unusual that Moca is voluntarily practicing with her, knowing how devoted and, in Moca’s own words a ‘hard ass’ she is about it. And as the basis for a date, no less.

Suffice to say when she finally enters the live house, offering a brief nod to Marina at the front desk, and sees Moca nowhere in the lobby, that deep-seated suspicion grows exponentially. A quick question to the front reveals Moca arrived a little earlier, and went ahead and went into the room early. She had also not rented out any spare equipment, which struck her as unusual given both of their bands’ sound, but she elected to follow suit and head for the practice hall. Testing the handle elicits a quirked brow from her as she then goes to open the door; left it unlocked. Not the choice Sayo would have made but it works. She will be locking it behind her though.

The moment the door opens, she’s met with a guitar riff, which strikes her as even more odd, though a slight bit relieved. Moca intends to actually practice and not drag her away somewhere from the start, that’s good. At first, all she can see is the mess of ivory blonde from the back, clearly not having heard her entrance, and she’s keen on keeping it that way. The riff isn’t recognized immediately, but as she can start to hear Moca humming over her guitar, she pinpoints it rather quickly. She really shouldn’t be surprised at the choice either, given the shelves of manga Moca has stashed away in various parts of her house.

It’s cut off abruptly though, the sound of the door closing drawing Moca’s attention in a way that she whirls around so quickly. The back of Sayo’s mind humorously supplies that the underclassman may have just used most of her energy for the day and she almost cracks a bemused smile at that. Moca stares at her for a moment before setting her guitar down gently ( on the floor, which warrants a displeased glare from Sayo ) and evenly saunters over with arms raised prematurely to throw her around her.

“Sayoooooooo. You made it, huh? You weren’t here when I got here, so I was suuuper worried you just bailed on ol’ Moca.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’m not even late, Moca. I can’t be as early as you, I live at least a train ride away and I had to drop off my school bag.”

Nevertheless, she aptly maneuvers her arms out from under Moca’s and returns the hug briefly. Then she steps back out of the embrace warranting a grumble from Moca as she walks past to begin setting up her own guitar, fetch a stand, the usual works. Behind her, Moca lets out an exaggerated sigh.

“Wooow, so cruel Sayo. Not even a hello kiss for your cute girlfriend, huh? And here I was, going out of my way to warm up ahead of time so you wouldn’t have to wait.”

“The opening riff to Noragami is a warm up for you?”

Without missing a beat as Sayo begins dragging over one of the stands, Moca returns to her guitar, raising it and slinging the strap over her shoulder.

“Aragoto, to be specific. Why do you know that?”

“...why do you?”

“Uh-uhhhh, Moca asked first, and Sayo asked second. You gotta answer me first, rules say so.” 

Moca’s tongue comes out in a teasing gesture when Sayo glances her way, and she rolls her eyes in response, digging through her bag for the sheet music she had printed out. Her answer comes out a little too quickly, a little forcibly defensive that there’s no way Moca doesn’t see through it as a lie.

“Hina watches it sometimes.”

“Mmm yeah, and then you watch the rest of the episode when she falls asleep and can’t catch ya leanin’ over the couch, huh?”

She catches, briefly, the sight of Sayo’s ears going a light red, likely from embarrassment at the accusation before they’re hidden beneath long teal tresses and Sayo takes a rough breath in. Ah, so she was more right than she thought! Inwardly, and outwardly she can feel in the tug on her lips, she grins at a job well done.

“I asked second.”

“Ehhh? I dunno what you’re talking about Sayo. Don’t you want to practice instead, seeing as watching anime and ‘even worse discussing it’ is a waste of time better suited to practice?”

Ahaha, that’s kind of a nasty glare being sent her way, but Moca simply shrugs it off with a lazy, knowing grin. Running her hand through her hair she raises a brow.

“Ahhhh, well if you absolutely must know, the action scenes are particularly cool to watch. Buuuuut I digress!” Hey, fancy word of the day and she even used it right. Score. “We came here to practice huh? Unless you only came to scope out your competition in a couple weeks… not that I blame you of course; Moca is a mighty foe to face in a band-off.”

With a resounding chuckle, she went right back into the intro riff again as Sayo carefully clipped her guitar to the strap and rested it over her shoulder. The song is occasionally joined by some warm up strums from Sayo’s guitar, but otherwise she’s uninterrupted as she begins to hum along to the words playing her head. The bridge into the chorus sees her begin to animatedly tap her foot, and she raises a hand for showmanship points before going into the chorus riff.

That’s when she’s abruptly joined by Sayo’s guitar a slightly off sound compared to her own likely attributed to different strings, but she isn’t too bothered by it. Instead, Moca sends a pleasant grin in Sayo’s direction as she turns to face her proper, keeping in time with the song. At least for Sayo’s shake, she does hum a little louder. As expected from someone who wasn’t nearly as avid a watcher, the strumming is not nearly as on point, but its well enough that the tune is recognizable, which Moca absently nods her head in time to as she plays.

The song comes to an end after a repeat of the chorus, and Moca does so with a flourish to an invisible crowd. And then, of course, the pick is raised to her lips so she can stretch out her hands, her arms above her head with a couple pops in various places.

“Aaaaaah, that was a good practice, huh Sayo?”

“If you’re done, get out. I’ll do better work without distraction.”

“Oof, so cold Sayoooo.” Moca groaned, leveling her gaze toward Sayo. “You hurt ol’ Moca’s heart, and on a date too.”

“You shouldn’t have made it a guitar practice. After we’re done we can go to some nearby cafe.” That gets Moca’s attention, and there’s a certain glint in her eyes that worries Sayo just a bit. “If you’ve performed up to par. I won’t allow slacking in my partner of all people.”

“Wellllllll with an incentive like that, I’ll just have to show you up, huh?”

Ah, there’s the… friendly rivalry she’s grown used to having with a girlfriend that also plays the guitar for a band. For the rival band to Roselia of all of them.

“Unfortunately, the show will be as practice goes, and practice goes as the show will; that is to say, Roselia will be at the top.”

“Oho, mighty words to say to Moca, Sayo. Are you prepared to pay for your and my orders when we go out to eat when you lose?”

For a good ten minutes they’re slinging insults at one another, firing one another up, trying to get under the others skin. In moderation of course, they’re still a healthy and caring couple deep down. Beneath the unhealthy rivalry that is mostly driven on by Sayo, but still, a rivalry nonetheless. Still, once the insults die down and they do go into rehearsal proper, it’s one of the better times they’ve played.

The song is a newer one developed in tandem between Roselia and Afterglow, and a fair bit of intermediary work with the event coordinators. It’s meant to be a song playable by both bands and they’re supposed to be playing it at the same time at the end of the show. The location had two stages across from one another, and so it would be a battle of the bands so to speak, an amp-vs-amp to see which the crowd would prefer. And then of course, a collaboration proper between them to ensure there’s no bad blood closing the show out. For all Moca has put toward ensuring she can play the song to the best of her ability for Ran and the rest of their group, she knows her practice time can’t do much but pale in comparison to Sayo’s. She can’t imagine how much she’s poured over this particular sheet this week alone. Moca knows firsthand Sayo tends to… neglect most social interaction when a Roselia gig has been confirmed, and she tends to do so even at the expense of her own health. It comes to her as absolutely no surprise that Sayo’s fingerings to the off-tone metronome are stunning. And, it also comes as no surprise to Moca that every so often, Sayo’s face twists into a grimace at displeasure of her own performance, yet makes no such motion when Moca plays her segment.

Oh well… it doesn’t matter in the end. The plan was never to spend more than an hour here in the live house anywho. With a smirk hidden behind longer ivory bangs, Moca turns away on the closure of Sayo’s riff and quickly digs into her sweater pocket to procure the last piece of the puzzle.

She begins playing away from Sayo’s eyes, though she can feel them boring into the back of her head. She’s been pouring everything into this practice to make it so very believable… she’s giving it all she has left in this particular riff when so suddenly, so jarring that Sayo’s tapping halts. It’s not even a loud sound, almost overshadowed by the other notes around it, but there is almost a ‘click’ and the only sound in the room is the insistent metronome playing off to the right. That hand disappears back into her sweater pocket with a faux-exasperated sigh.

“...Sayoooooo, my E-string just quit on me.”

She turns, looking a bit dejected in the face as she waves around the longer part of the now bisected string. Sayo’s face is clearly a mixture of shock as well as disappointment. Not at Moca mind you, but the fact that the string crapped out on such a good practice.

“...Hm, well that’s very unfortunate… we can’t really continue with you missing a string. Have you got replacements?”

Moca hums quietly, gaze falling back down to the end of the string.

“Yeah, I got some in my bag… why don’t we take a nice break though? We’ve been playing for soooo long. It’s gonna take Moca a lil’ while to fix this anyway.”

Sayo seems apprehensive about taking a break so soon ( was an hour in really considered ‘soon’ to Roselia’s guitarist? ) but she seems to figure it out in her head. She nods slowly, and her guitar is unslung from her shoulder. There’s the table nearby that holds the metronome and she sets the guitar over, pick quickly pocketed and metronome switched off.

“Fine. I’ll go get something small for us to share while we wait.” Moca nods and her eyes follow as she walks toward the door, but as she’s preparing to unlock the door, Moca suddenly speaks up.

“Heeeeeey, Sayo. How much do you spend on guitar strings usually? Moca hasn’t seen yours snap ever, so they must be pretty good, huh?”

“Guitar strings? It depends on how intensely I’m supposed to play, but I guess a good middle point would be around four-thousand yen.” Moca’s eyes widen almost comically and she lets out a long ‘wow’ at that.

“Sheesh, Sayo must be made of money huh? Moca only spends two-thousand… and that’s if I know I’ll need them…”

Still...four thousand yen? That isn’t… entirely horrible. It’ll leave her with very little cash in pocket, but at least she has her charged cards to use at most cafes and bakeries around the city. Sayo rolls her eyes once more, though still has a small, fond smile on her lips as she exits.

It almost makes Moca feel bad.

Keyword: Almost.

As soon as the door closes, Moca sets her own guitar down a fair bit away from the table, and immediately out of the open area she might need a little later. Once that’s done and she’s secured it, she quietly walks over to where Sayo has left her guitar and she looks down at it. Absently, she marvels at it because hey, it’s blue and that’s similar to her own. Not quite the same shade, but its still an indicator of good taste. Moca doesn’t need to survey them as long as she does to tell that they’re well-worn strings, and when she brings a thumb down over them to test the sound, up close at least, they definitely sound different to fresh strings. And now she feels even less bad!

Tentatively, she brings another thumb down to continue the noise, finding the slightly different sound of Sayo’s guitar a pleasant change to her own DBL. The sound is still reverberating around the room when she procures from her sweater pocket her secret weapon.

A pair of scissors.

The blades part and she brings the bottom blade against all of the strings and score! They’ll all fit with one snip! Mentally, Moca fistpumps. After this, she’ll convince Sayo that they’ll need to simply drop practice, go to the music place downtown, and conveniently spend the rest of their date on, you know, an actual date at the cafe she knows is down the street.

Of course, things rarely go according to plan. As the fourth string snaps something ugly into a dying chord, Moca hears all too well the sound of the practice hall door closing, and she hastily closes the blades down, silencing the guitar. She can’t hear a rush of footsteps yet, so Sayo hasn’t fully processed what she walked in on. That’s good.

There’s hope to still fix the impression.

Moca whirls around on her feet, leaning back into something of an idle stance as she raises her hands in defense.

“Now, I know what you’re thinkin’ Sayo… What the-”

“What the fuck did you just do to my guitar, Moca!?”

“-fuck did; ah, yep. Right on the nose huh? Well you see-” She doesn’t quite get to finish her explanation because there is a downright murderous look in Sayo’s eyes as she stomps forward toward Moca and dull alarms go back in her head. Fight or flight right? She’s got a weapon to defend herself and all, but that’s quickly pocketed as the imaginary cursor over ‘flight’ jams down.

She can’t quite vault over the table safely without further damaging Sayo’s guitar. Which may seem ironic in the moment, but Moca really isn’t meaning to sabotage her performance with something as horrible as an actually broken guitar. Just some strings so they can go on their first proper date in probably a month. Good intentions and all right?

Instead, she sidesteps and whirls on heel to run around to the back of the table. Sayo immediately breaks into a dash as soon as Moca flees, and they round the table enough times that Moca has started to pant when Sayo slows. She’s still running, but not at an all out sprint, and that gives Moca some leeway.

“Do you have any idea how much it’ll cost to replace all of those!?”

Oh it’s really not a smart idea, but Moca can’t help it. “Uhhh... about four-thousand yen, give or take? Depends on your rehearsal difficulty…..” She trails off because she needs that air instead to fuel her as she breaks out into a sprint to mirror Sayo’s. Moca doesn’t manage but a couple more rounds before she starts slowing down and eventually Sayo’s hand shoots out and curls a grip around her wrist that… actually kinda hurts. Enough that Moca grits her teeth and lets out a quiet hiss as she stumbles to a halt.

Out the corner of her eyes, she can see Sayo’s eyes, still alight with fury widen for a second, and her hand snaps away quicker than it had grabbed her.

“Moca, what the actual fuck-”

“Lissen’ it’s really not for the reason you probably think it is Sayo.” She takes a couple breaths because hot damn, that level of activity is better for a span of days, not for one isolated segment of six minutes. Sayo’s eyes narrow dangerously and she takes a step forward, but Moca is still quicker, given the element of surprise. She turns on heel and quickly strides for her backpack, Sayo very hot on her heels, admittedly in more ways than one, but that was beside the point. The situation needed to be salvaged first before she could begin the date properly.

She all but falls toward the ground as she unzips it, digging around for her wallet and procuring it with a victorious smile. She digs into it afterwards, and four one-thousand yen notes. Rest in peace, her wallet. A painful, but necessary sacrifice for the greater good that is their relationship.

“See, look. Moca’ll pay for it, so no ending my sweet, short life, okay?”

Sayo’s expression turns nigh unreadable, somewhere between rage, confusion and several other, minor feelings. Eventually she heaves out a sigh and snatches the notes from her hand so quickly Moca almost thinks one of them will rip and she’ll be royally screwed but they don’t. They’re roughly shoved into her school uniform pocket, and Sayo extends a hand down to get Moca to her feet, of course receiving a couple theatrics in response.

“Why you cut them just to give me four thousand yen I don’t know, but we’re going to the store immediately. Pack your things and get a move on.” And then Sayo is turning on heel to pack up her guitar, giving Moca enough time to do the same before she all but drags her toward the exit.

Marina expresses her confusion at their early clock out, but Sayo shuts her down with a curt response, dropping the key down onto the counter and resuming dragging Moca out toward the door.

With her one free hand, Moca digs a hand to her pocket, taking out her phone and getting into the messaging app.

[SENT] -> (group: afterYOOOO) @ 4:56] (hey if u guys dont see me again assume sayo killed me n hid the body… or worse maybe ate it to hide the evidence)

[RECEIVED] -> (group: afterYOOOO - Tomoe) @ 4:56] (wtf)

[RECEIVED] -> (group: afterYOOOO - Ran) @ 4:56] (what did you do)

[SENT] -> (group: afterYOOOO) @ 4:57] (u hurt me ran why do u always assume the worst of moca i am a veritable angel thank you)

[SENT] -> (group: afterYOOOO) @ 4:57] (that being said i may or may not have cut all of sayos guitar strings)

[RECEIVED] -> (group: afterYOOOO - Ran) @ 4:58] (WTF moca u idiot????)

[...]SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING

Well, seeing as there’s no sympathy to be had from her bandmates at this rate, the phone is quickly locked and pocketed once more. With a hefty sigh that’s more act than real, Moca returns her attention to Sayo. She’s keeping her eyes forward, which is probably a good thing because it’s kinda hard to focus when the gaze of death is staring at you from reaching distance.

It takes a while, but they’re getting close. Sort of close to the music shop, but closer to Moca’s intended destination. The one Sayo is about to pass by. Steeling herself, Moca quickly tightens her grip on Sayo’s hand, thankful for a hot second that being pulled on her right hand, and tugs her to the side toward the cafe’s open door sharply enough that she stumbles and isn’t able to fight it as they enter.

“What the hell, Moca!?” It’s a quiet hiss, meant to avoid catching the attention of the other few people that sit around the cafe. Before she can demand an answer, Moca’s hand raises in an exaggerated wave toward one of the servers.

Almost immediately recognizing her, he quickly comes over while offering the two of them a practiced smile.

“Moca, we were beginning to think you weren’t going to show up. You had some of the back room folks worried.”

Moca chuckles deeply, and she waves a hand in dismissal. “You wound ol’ Moca with your lack of faith, but worry not. Aoba party of two is here to eat all of your bread!”

The server sends a discrete look of sympathy towards Sayo, met only with an incredulous one as he looks back to Moca. “As you will then, right this way. We reserved the seat Afterglow usually takes for you two.”

The situation is, admittedly, a little informal and all, but it’s still kind of… shocking in a way that Moca went out of her way to make a reservation. As they sit down in the too-large-for-two booth across from one another, Sayo’s eyes narrow in thought. Reservation. That means that, at some point, Moca knew she’d be bringing Sayo here. Leaning back into the seat, Sayo’s arms cross and she gives Moca a pointed look. Notwithstanding the means by which they got here, it’s an… incredibly sweet gesture.

“You planned this.”

Moca looks up to her, and while her sarcastic words claim innocence, there’s a mischief in her eyes and smile that Sayo softens at.

“Eh, this? Nah, ol’ Moca would never try and take away from your practice time intentionally… it was just a happy lil’ accident that I had scissors on me, y’know?”

Sayo’s eyes roll for the umpteenth time that afternoon, and she glances down towards the menu. It’s mostly bakery style items, rolls, buns, cakes the whole nine yards and then some which is incredibly Moca, but it’s also a step up from just take-and-go from a bakery.

“I’m still mad.”

“Eh, I figured. Kinda’ was a good idea in my head, but not in practice. Good intentions and all, with how much you’ve been ignoring literally everything in favor of the show. Still worked out in the end so hey!” She claps her hands, immediately getting Sayo’s attention from the menu. “Moca’s a genius and a good girlfriend.”

The plan was brash yes, and Sayo isn’t so easy to let off the damage done to her guitar but yes, Moca did offer to pay for the strings, and she knows Moca enough to know she’s going to pay for the meal with those cards of hers. But it was also, as Moca had said, done with good intention. She has been focusing solely on the upcoming show because it means so much to Yukina and she feels she owes her at least that, but even Yukina has mentioned in the past that too much work would be detrimental to her, and to the band as a whole in the end. She’s been… kind of a shitty partner to Moca in the past month or so, but she’s still sticking it out, even planning stuff like this. Even managing to keep the facade up in the face of Sayo’s rage to make sure she eventually can take her out. It’s endearing in a… very Moca way.

Unconventional and not without fault, but successful in the end.

She can’t help but smile, and Moca returns it with a lazy one of her own when she notices. Awkwardly, Sayo drums her fingers against the tabletop, having decided on what she was going to order. Before Moca can wave down that waiter of hers, Sayo clears her throat to get her attention.

“I… I know I’ve been kind of really horrible that past few weeks, what with the band-vs-band coming up and all… but I really do appreciate you doing this. And uh, I’m sorry for how I reacted, and how I’ve been acting in the past.”

Moca tilts her head, resting a hand over her chin as her elbow balances down on the table.

“Eh, it’ll take more than a lil’ bit of meanness from Sayo to deter Moca from her unyielding love.” She winks slyly toward Sayo and she scoffs in return.

“I mean it though, I really am sorry. I’ve kind of neglected you.”

“Kind of?”

“Okay listen, I’m trying. I have neglected you.”

Moca simply chuckles and nods in response. It’s a breath of fresh air to be able to talk with Sayo like this, even if it’s clear how much it’s out of Sayo’s element. Moca’s too to an extent, but she’s much better about keeping a lid on that can of worms.

“After the performance, let me take you out somewhere. It’ll be somewhere nice, to make up for… everything really. Okay?”

Moca brightens at the prospect and immediately holds a hand out, to Sayo’s confusion.

“I accept. Shake on it, so Moca knows you won’t go back on your word. For safety’s sake of course.”

Sayo stares her hand down for a moment before shaking her head and smiling softly. Even so, she extends her hand to shake with Moca’s

“Good. With that out of the way, let’s at least make it through this date first.”

Moca chuckles, not unlike her dark one earlier and nods, squeezing Sayo’s hand before releasing it so she can wave down the employee.

Unconventional and even a bit controversial to get results, but in the end, she not only took Sayo on a date that wasn’t music related ( technically ), but she also was promised a proper date on Sayo’s end, and she knew well enough from the determined look in Sayo’s eyes it would definitely be one of the best dates they’d had in literally ever.

Double Score.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go I am officially the owner and proprietor of the first SayoMoca fic hella rad.
> 
> These two would absolutely be good sharing fries at cafes and,,,,,, good shit like that.
> 
> Catch me on @HaraHanzo on twitter retweeting anything on my feed abt these two rn


End file.
